Photo:
Kid Harpoon (aka Tom Hull) continues his musical assault with the unimaginatively titled ‘The Second EP’. Yet as the title is the least imaginative aspect of this album that can be levelled against this EP then it surely can be forgiven. The 6 tracks of this EP are a remarkable and beautiful mix of ambient rock and solo acoustic numbers. A manic, passionate release, there’s a powerful mix of conflicting emotion ever pervaded by the melancholy that infects Hull’s dreary and bleak origins of the Kent Medway area.
‘Riverside’ is an ironic title for the first track considering that Kid Harpoon seems possessed by the spirit of Jeff Buckley. Raw and raucous, it is a gritty musical piece of repressed anxiety, released in spasms of explosive bizarre living lyrics “We need water coupled with light”. Ripping on through delicate emotional tissue ‘Fathers and Sons’ is infused with escapist desire for a dream-surreal life. This only to be grounded by Larkin-esque, unsubtly titled ‘Suicide Grandad?’ that spews anger against a perceived bleak life of growing old, desiring instead an angry control of “better things to do than wait to die”.
Of the rest, from the bluesy attack of ‘Her body sways’ to the final powerful a Gaelic-edged balladry of ‘Lay of the Land’, Kid Harpoon’s performances never drops below astonishing. Even through the rockier numbers there’s still a painful intimacy to each recording. At times perhaps it seems that vocals could bow a little to subtlety and delicacy rather than their usual brashness. But nether the less this remains one of the most dignified rising releases heard by this reviewer in many months. Most certainly a boat to catch early, Kid Harpoon maybe an emotional wreck but he’s sailing for good places.
Released 25/02/08 on XL Recordings.
